The prospect of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the current time, so you may imagine that there might be little appetite for visiting Zimbabwe’s gambling dens. In reality, it seems to be operating the opposite way, with the critical economic conditions creating a bigger eagerness to wager, to try and find a quick win, a way out of the problems.
For nearly all of the people subsisting on the meager nearby wages, there are 2 popular styles of betting, the state lottery and Zimbet. As with almost everywhere else on the globe, there is a national lottery where the odds of hitting are unbelievably small, but then the prizes are also very high. It’s been said by financial experts who study the concept that many don’t buy a ticket with the rational expectation of hitting. Zimbet is centered on either the national or the English football divisions and involves predicting the results of future games.
Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, on the other foot, cater to the incredibly rich of the nation and travelers. Until recently, there was a incredibly large vacationing business, based on nature trips and visits to Victoria Falls. The market collapse and associated violence have cut into this market.
Among Zimbabwe’s gambling dens, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and one armed bandits, and the Plumtree gambling hall, which has just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Center in Kariba also has only slot machines. Mutare contains the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, the pair of which have table games, one armed bandits and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, each of which have video poker machines and blackjack, roulette, and craps tables.
In addition to Zimbabwe’s gambling halls and the aforestated mentioned lottery and Zimbet (which is quite like a parimutuel betting system), there are also 2 horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the 2nd city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.
Since the economy has shrunk by more than 40% in the past few years and with the associated poverty and bloodshed that has come about, it is not known how healthy the sightseeing business which is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of them will be alive until conditions get better is merely not known.